Shaggy’s first few hours in prison were oddly clinical. From the shots he received, to being given more sets of his prison clothes, followed by his long walk to his newly assigned cell. Everything about the prison screamed uniformity and cleanliness. Aside from the actual prisoners screaming obscenities at him at every occasion.

Shaggy was poked and prodded repeatedly before finally making his debut on the cell block. The large square room was painted white, and the sun streamed in from windows high on the wall. To one side of the square room were three floors of cells, all facing the opposite wall. Some were open while others were closed and all of them seemed occupied. Aliens, humans, and mutants were hanging off catwalks or poking their heads through their cells. All to get a look at Shaggy as he was marched toward the far end of the room.

The cheers and jeers echoed in the cement room. But Shaggy had heard most of it before. By this point, he was an expert on what the locals would shout at him to try and get a rise out of him. Comments about his height, his hair, even his eyes. His fellow prisoners weren’t shy about expressing their feelings one way or another about him. Although things changed when Shaggy spotted where he was going.

At the end of the large bay of cells and catwalks were three larger cells. Where the cell-block was full of normal barred cells, these units were both wider and taller. With massive black-iron doors with all sorts of tech built into them. Shaggy looked up and noticed that each of the cells was given a designation. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

Shaggy was brought to a stop outside Gamma. The cell literally built at the far end of his block. By this point, the jeering and catcalling had stopped and Shaggy glanced over his shoulder. A lot of the prisoners had gone back into their cells, but a few were still watching Shaggy. But this time it was with looks of contemplation. Apparently, these cells were for special cases. Shaggy wondered if he rated high enough for such treatment or if Obadiah was still pulling strings.

“Open Gamma!” a stern guard in a half-helmet shouted.

Shaggy winced as Gamma’s large door slowly whirred to life. Whatever technology that was within the door hummed ominously and Shaggy tried to find an interface for the door. But he got nothing.

“Don’t bother, Gamma. These doors are built to only open upon command. There are no locks and no way to open it from the inside. The door takes hourly readings from inside the cell to make sure you're not doing anything fishy.”

“Jeez, guys. All this just for me? I’m flattered.”

“Fuck you, Gamma. This was the warden’s call. Something about you being a pain in the ass. Warden Volk doesn’t want you fraternizing with the rest of B-block.”

Shaggy gave the guard a feral grin. “But I’ll go stir crazy without my walkies.”

That got a snort from the guard’s partner. But it was quickly silenced with a stern look from the first guard.

“You’ll be let out for meals, work detail, and supervised yard time.” The first guard said. “So don’t worry, Gamma. You’ll get your walkies.”

The guard’s words were punctuated by Shaggy’s cell door finally opening all the way. The giant black-metal door was two feet thick and Shaggy could still hear its innards whirring away. He was shoved forcefully toward his new home, and Shaggy took it in as he walked.

His bed was against the right side wall with a mirror and sink opposite. Sitting against the back of the cell was a toilet of dubious quality. There was a holo-screen on the wall a foot down from the thirteen foot high ceiling. It was displaying a bright view of the sun, which Shaggy assumed mirrored the one outside. And that was it, aside from a small metal shelf anchored into the wall next to the sink. It was empty, but it made Shaggy think about having something to read. Judging by the way the guard was treating him, Shaggy assumed his free time was going to be spent in his new metal box home. He’d have to look into getting some reading material. But if all else failed him, he’d have the forums.

Shaggy’s feet crossed the threshold and the metal door screamed into life again. Both guards glared at him as the door closed, daring him to try something. Shaggy had to fight off the impulse as the door shut with an eerie tone of finality. The sound of the room sealing itself made a shiver crawl up Shaggy’s spine, but he put it aside as he sat on his bed.

“Piece of shit.” Shaggy muttered as he felt the thin mattress.

He could feel the hard metal frame underneath and wondered if he could ask for an upgrade. Shaggy was mentally going through all sorts of ways to sarcastically ask for a new bed as he laid down. Keeping his mind active helped from his suddenly depressing situation. He was here for the night. The doctors and guards that had processed him had made it clear that only the first two meals were held in the cafeteria. Dinner was a cold meal served from a cart for some reason. Shaggy had wanted to unravel that little mystery, but he’d never get the chance now.

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“Comfy?” Obadiah’s voice asked with a sigh.

Shaggy sat bolt upright and looked around. There were no speakers in his cell, but the old man had sounded close. He got up from the bed as the old cyborg chuckled.

“Hehehe. I’m up here.” Shaggy whirled and looked up at the holo-screen that had been giving him a view.

Obadiah’s old face was plastered on the screen in front of a dark background. The limited light made the old man’s features sharp and creepy. Shaggy smirked at the image. It reminded him of family camping trips where his sister would try to scare him at night. Shaking the memory away, Shaggy waved a hand experimentally at the screen.

“You live?”

“Yep, got a direct line straight into your cell. Which is why we wanted you in one of the new ones.”

“Shit. I thought all this was because I was a badass.” Shaggy grumbled.

Obadiah scowled. “Yes, well, because of these living arrangements, I can constantly monitor your progress while you are inside.”

“Over-manage much?”

“Not normally, no. But Duke is my last chance to find anything on the HLO. They are extremely careful and are well hidden behind government bureaucracy. I need you to become friends with him asap.”

“Oh, I’m sure we will bond over our shared solitary confinement! How am I supposed to even meet the bastard’s proxies when I’m in isolation?”

“First off, you are not in isolation. You’re just housed in a special cell. Second, I’m sure Duke has his ways to get messages out. All you need to do is wait for one. Supposedly, Duke has expressed a great interest in visiting the library. Now the guards aren’t going to walk him down there, but it might be a good place to pass a message.”

“Okay, the library sounds like a viable option. But how am I supposed to identify Duke’s people?”

“Don’t think of them as ‘Duke’s People.’ He’s just a pawn. But the HLO will have people close to him. They will be the ones to reach out.”

“You think so?” Shaggy asked, not keeping the dubious tone from his voice.

“I know so. We’ve set you up in the Gamma cell on B-block. Combined with your infamy and a few choice stories from credible ‘witnesses,’ I am eighty-two percent sure Duke will reach out. All you have to do is wait.”

“I can do that. But how do we know the other eighteen percent won’t stick its ugly nose up?”

Obadiah shrugged. “We don’t. You just be ready to move when the HLO enacts their plan. I want you embedded with Duke’s group and feeding us info as quick as possible.”

Shaggy nodded and fingered the collar around his throat. “Yeah, and I’ll be happy to get this damn thing off. Between the collar and all the shots I’m getting, I feel like a show dog.”

“At least we know you’ve got all your inoculations.” Obadiah joked, and Shaggy grinned before something occurred to him.

“What was the other shot for?”

“What?”

Shaggy rubbed his neck where he’d been stuck with the needle before leaving for the prison. “I mean, I get that the ones here were for diseases and whatnot. But what about the one before I even left the police station? What was that shot about?”

Shaggy watched as the old man’s eye grew wide. Not saying anything, Obadiah’s face disappeared from the screen. All that was left was a black void. Shaggy was beginning to worry and then his cell door whirred angrily at him. The whirring was accompanied by a pale blue light shooting out from the door and hitting Shaggy in the head. The light passed over him two times, before the whirring calm downed, making Shaggy blink in confusion.

With a grunt, Obadiah was back in front of the Holo-screen, a grim set to his jaw. “They put a tracker in you.”

“They put a what where now?”

“Somebody fucking put a tracker in you!”

Shaggy growled as he scratched at his neck. He momentarily worried about being overheard, but Obadiah sighed and brought him back to the present.

“It’s not transmitting anything yet. But I think it was the HLO. Apparently, they don’t want you getting away anytime soon. As soon as you leave the prison, it’ll probably activate and lead them right to you.”

Obadiah looked annoyed, but Shaggy grinned. “So if I’m with their little golden boy…?”

“They’ll probably back off. Or they might just kill you. You pissed off some pretty powerful people recently, Shaggy. I don’t know if they’ll let you go once they have you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll shake them loose. But to be sure, how deep is the damn thing?”

Obadiah peered down at something in his hands. “Scans show it just inside of your neck. If I had to guess, it’s a microbot model designed to latch onto something inside and stay there. Getting it out is going to suck.”

“I’ll manage. But it’ll have to wait till I’m outside again.”

Obadiah shrugged. “If you say so. But if you don’t want to claw your own neck up, you could wait till I can get my people to you. I can scrounge up the proper equipment for an extraction.”

Shaggy waved the old man off and sat on his bed. “I’ll manage. Was there anything else?”

“Nope, just a general check-in and reaffirmation of goals. Sometime soon, one of the HLO’s people may contact you. So be ready.”

“I will.”

“Well then, good luck.”

With that, Shaggy’s holo-screen went back to the images of a setting sun. Soon his dinner would be rolled out to him and he’d spend a cold, quiet night in a cell. He glanced down at the thin white sheet of his bed and sighed. The next couple days of his in-game life were going to be boring. But the days after that were going to be filled with spies and intrigue. Shaggy laid down on his shitty bed and tried not to scratch at his neck. The HLO was going to pay for tagging him, that was for sure. But first he had to befriend a super-powerful Mutant with a tenuous hold on their powers.

“No problem.” Shaggy muttered as a small white box was pushed into his cell.

The white cardboard box wobbled as it phased through his cell door. Shaggy got to his feet and grabbed the box before sitting back on his bed. A meal sounded good to Shaggy as he pried the box open.

“Oh, you assholes!” Shaggy shouted as he stared at his dinner.

A sandwich, a small bag of chips, and a tiny bottle of water. Shaggy growled ineffectually at his door for a few seconds before scarfing down his food. All it did was remind him of how hungry he was. Shaggy threw himself on his shitty bed and rolled to his side.

“Prison fucking sucks.”